If Pokémon And Animal Crossing Had A Baby It Might Be Toby’s Island

Toby’s Island is, for those wanting the short version, what promises to be a mix of Pokemon and Animal Crossing. The Kickstarter PC game is ambitious in its promise, with monstrous Ferral rearing and slowly building up a town on the floating island main character Red Toby is on.

A 2D, side-scrolling game, Toby’s Island has players exploring and rebuilding the floating land they’re now living on and interacting with the various Lost spirits. These Spirits aren’t there just for show, though—you’ll be able to inject them into Ferrals you capture and raise to boost a Ferral’s abilities. Putting a twist on things, Ferrals also will have multiple evolutions depending on how you fight with them. Battles are turn-based affairs that are more akin to your traditional RPGs, however.

You’re almost alone on the island though for a while, which is where the town-building bit comes in. Players will have to farm for resources and food which can be used to gain buffs or unlock new areas. You’ll also have to craft to complete items.

Also of interest is that the game will be semi-random. Sometimes you’ll encounter a Lost early in the game. In another playthrough, it might come near the end instead. Other events, while scripted, will also occur at random times. Whether this is a good thing or not for you is up for debate, but it does lead to some fascinating possibilities. Hopefully, one of them does not include “being screwed over by RNG.” The developers also say the game will be heavily story-driven with a mix of both light and dark themes. It seems you’ll eventually have to face down the Dark One locked into the world as well.

Like in any RPG worth their salt, you will also have a series of puzzles to solve (ahh mysterious boxes lying around, why dost thou torment me?) and minigames such as fishing. Kickstarting the game and getting it past stretch goals could unlock other mini games such as treasure hunting, bowling, tower defense (YES!) and a collectible card game (DOUBLE YES!)

You can Kickstart Toby’s Island over here, and vote for it to be Steam Greenlit over here.

Fire Spirit looks like a combination of Yveltal and Zygarde.
This looks pretty cool.

http://Mvisioning.com Matthew B.

I will have to look that up!

http://thomasgeraghty.wordpress.com/ johnnycbadde

Looks great!

http://Mvisioning.com Matthew B.

Thanks! I appreciate that!

Jormangund

The concept itself greatly interests me, and I’m excited to see where this could lead. The only real complaint I have is the general art style of the whole thing…bluntly, it looks like shit in my opinion.

Barrylocke89

My thoughts on the artstyle are more mixed. The backgrounds of the world look very nice to me, but the character/’mon sprites look pretty bleh/generic, especially their eyes.

http://Mvisioning.com Matthew B.

I will see what I can do? :P

http://Mvisioning.com Matthew B.

As the artist of the game, Harsh :P

http://Mvisioning.com Matthew B.

after crying myself into a gentle sleep, I gained the courage to come back and ask for a more descriptive account of what you don’t like about our art.

Jormangund

Heh. Sorry if I was harsh :P

After properly thinking about it, I would have to say that it’s not the art in its entirety. I was a bit too general there. The sprites kind of look like they were taken from some social network game (although that’s just to my eyes). The background itself is actually really good, but the problem I find there is that some parts of it don’t really match up with the rest.

For example, the picture of the body of water with huge statue in the middle with water flowing out of its mouth. Though the water, the tree, and the general land portion looks amazing, the statue itself, as well as the ancient ruin thing right below it don’t seem to be on the same level. And, well, since the art isn’t all that seamless, again just my opinion, it sort of puts a damper on the whole thing.

Sorry if I was too harsh by saying that it was shit. It’s not really shit, it’s just that the “tacked on” feeling of some of the elements (my opinion) gives it the illusion of shit. It won’t stop me from buying the game once it comes out, but it would be great if you could just tweak things a bit.

Oh, and thanks for all the hard work you’ve been putting in this game!

http://Mvisioning.com Matthew B.

Thank you for taking the time to respond! You would be happy to know that the particular image you are talking about is not actually in the game, and was just us playing around with pre alpha assets, may of which will not be in the final product. We are still crazy early in development and the game is in for a MASSIVE amount of polish.

Matt

Rein

I really want to play this game. Keep up the good work, Matt!

http://Mvisioning.com Matthew B.

Thank you so much, that means a lot! My team mate and I sat down last night and did a lot of planning on some of the big features like farming and I think they are going to be good.

BigBaloogaJaxon

I think the game looks great! This is coming from an artist. It fits the theme well and I know it will look even better when it’s all done. Right now it looks very pretty and the ruins (even tho they’re not in the game) look great too. Nothing looks off or imbalanced. Not trying to discredit Jormangund, but I think it looks just Jim Dandy fine so far. :) Also, as a very discerning gamer with incredibly high standards, I must say that some of the best games I’ve ever played to date have had what some might call “ho-hum” graphics when compared to million dollar AAA studio titles. Toby’s Island looks great btw. No ho-hum art here. Just saying, in the end game play always reigns king. The other stuff is of course very important but nothing’s more important than if the game is fun and plays great. My two cents. Good luck!

http://Mvisioning.com Matthew B.

Thank you very much for your kind words. As only 2 people, we never expected to present people with “incredible cutting edge graphics” We want the graphics to be cute and pleasing, but we cant ask for more than that. I’m happy to scare people away that don’t understand that, as I don’t want anyone to feel mislead.

Dystopiq

What’s with that atrocious Sasuke bird hair.

http://Mvisioning.com Matthew B.

tough crowd

Dystopiq

Hey I like Pokemon and Animal Crossing. I’m just tired of seeing the same anime hair everwhere. Hell, Pokemon Y’s starting male hair was awful. My character looked like a woman.

http://uglylarvas.tumbrl.com/ Kanimir

Looks pretty good, I love both Pokemon and AC games, so the combination of those 2 is a must for me! :) Though I agree that the design of the game could be better. I mean, the background is good, but together with other graphics it looks… wierd. Like it doesn’t fit together. And it looks a bit like a browser game. It looks much better in the videos than on the screenshots though.
Can’t wait.

http://Mvisioning.com Matthew B.

The game is still in for a lot of polish, so don’t worry. Things will fit together much better by the time it’s done. Right now we are slapping together graphics just so our systems can run and be tested.

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